Mannequin Refurbisher Wins Tech Vision Award

The Small Business Technology Institute (SBTI) and Intel Corp. sent one small business a very long way toward achieving its ambitions at the World of Difference Conference.

New York: A business may be small, but that doesn't mean it can't have big goals, and big ideas on how to reach those goals. At The World of Difference Conference held in New York City January 26 and 27, the Small Business Technology Institute (SBTI) and Intel Corp. sent one small business a very long way toward achieving its ambitions.

The conference was open to small businesses owners, managers, and staff, as well as their community partners, and was designed to help them learn how to use technology to make their businesses more successful. It was also the finale of The World of Difference contest, in which more than 2,300 businesses submitted vision statements on how information technology could help them to grow and thrive.

Those businesses with the highest scores were chosen to work with an Intel channel member to create a business proposal. The top five finalists were invited to present their proposals and be judged and voted on by their peers. Voting occurred both live at the conference and over an invitation-only Webcast, and the winner stood to claim a prize of $100,000 worth of technology products, services, and training.

The finalists were diverse: an Alabama produce-supply company, an outpatient mental-health clinic in Michigan, a Pennsylvania law firm that employs stay-at-home moms, an architectural company in Oregon, and perhaps most memorable, a company that rents and sells used mannequins. Each enthusiastically presented a unique plan for implementing technologies such as Xeon servers, VoIP, smartphones, touchscreens, voice recognition software, and particularly for the architecture firm, industry-specific software.

Carol Mangis manages the PC Magazine Digital Edition and PCMag on Medium. Her very first job in tech journalism was at PC Magazine (does anyone remember "After Hours"?), and she has also worked at Consumer Reports as an electronics editor.
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